Sunday, January 29, 2017

The weather was splendid the next day--that morning I decided to hike over Lincoln Pass to sketch the patches of Bog Laurel I'd seen on my first visit to Ellen Wilson Lake. I started out hiking directly from the back of Sperry Chalet. The patches of Pink Mountain Heather under the subalpine firs were in full bloom, and I stopped to photograph them.

On the way up to Lincoln Pass I ran into a couple from the east with whom I'd chatted the previous evening at dinner. They were about my age, but I soon passed them while they were taking breaks from the uphill traverse. I was rather amazed when I realized this--in only one week of hiking up and down these trails I was noticeably stronger and in better condition than I had been when I arrived. If I could only have stayed at Sperry for the rest of the season, I would have been able to tackle the long Gunsight Pass Trail easily.

I went over the pass and continued down, trying to remember exactly where the boggy meadow with the lush stand of Bog Laurel was. It would be on my left as I approached.

Bog Laurel (Kalmia polifolia)

It was a bit farther down the trail than I had remembered, but the meadow was easy to find. The ground was considerably drier now than the week before and the pools of standing water from the snow melt almost all absorbed. I walked around to find a nice spot to set up my camping stool, looking for some shade. There was very little shade and I positioned myself with my back to the sun so as to shade my sketchbook.

Close-up of Bog Laurel flowers

At one point I looked up from my sketch towards the rocky mass of Gunsight Pass Mountain in the background, and thought my eyes were playing tricks on me--I could see a spot of what looked like blue sky through the rocks! Nah, it was probably a trick of the light, a reflection. I kept looking, and saw the blue change to white as a cloud sailed past, then back to blue. Well then, this had to be the famous "hole in the wall" that had been described by Beth Dunnegan in her Sperry Chalet book. Kevin had told me that the hole in the wall was only visible from Sperry Chalet on one day in August (he couldn't remember the exact date) when the morning sun shone through the small opening. But here I was looking at it from the other side of the mountain--what are the chances?

After an hour or so, with the sun directly overhead it got so hot I couldn't stand it, and I moved my setup over to the edge of the meadow, into the scant shadows cast by a couple of subalpine firs near some rocks. Here I ate my lunch amid the bees and insects buzzing around the flowers. Ranger Dan came up on the trail, and I greeted him asking where he was heading. He told me that a dead baby goat had been reported at the Ellen Wilson Lake campground, and he was going to dispose of the carcass before it attracted a hungry bear. I had noted before that the park rangers are assiduous in their task to keep bears away from places where humans are, and vice-versa. I wished him good luck and he went on his way.

After lunch I added some Yellow Mountain Heather to my sketch, and a rock with some other plants I was not able to identify (they are probably some form of aster or groundsel), but I'm afraid my attempt to describe the environs--that mass of flowers in the rocky subalpine meadow--was not very successful--just passable, I'd say.

Yellow Mountain Heather (Phyllodoce glanduliflora)

Ranger Dan went by the trail again on his way back, and I asked him about his mission. He replied that he had not been able to find the goat carcass--either something had got to it before him, or perhaps another one of the campers had buried or moved it away from the campground. In any case, he had enjoyed the hike in this beautiful weather.

I packed my gear shortly after, and thought of going further down towards Ellen Wilson Lake, but the the sun and the heat had tired me out, and I decided to head back towards Sperry. It was still fairly early in the afternoon when I reached Lincoln Pass, so I lingered there to do another sketch.

Mt. Edwards from Lincoln Pass, watercolor pencils, 8" x 6"

For this view of Mt. Edwards I used only watercolor pencils. Later, when I got back to Sperry Chalet I went over the lines with water to blend some of the tones. I was surprised at how well it turned out--better than my earlier sketch. The mountain's geologic formations can really be appreciated from this vantage point.

About Me

I'm from the last Cuban generation to know Cuba before Castro, and one of the Pedro Pan children who came to the US in 1961. My biography, "Embracing America: A Cuban Exile Comes of Age," written by Margaret Paris, was published in 2002 by University Presses of Florida. I paint to keep my sanity and because I'm passionate about beauty.